AMPYX
AMPYX (
ἄμπυχ), a frontlet, or
band, worn by Greek ladies to confine the hair, passing round the front of
the head and fastening behind. It appears generally to have consisted of a
plate of gold or silver, often richly worked and adorned with precious
stones. Artemis (
Eur. Hec. 465) wears a
χρυσέα ἄμπυχ, and the epithet
χρυσάμπυκες is applied by the poets to
the Muses, Hours, and Fates, while the Scholiast (Eur.
l.c.) explains it as
κόσμος τις χρυσῷ
καὶ λίθοις πεποικιλμένος. (
Il.
22.468-
470; Theocr. 1.33.) It
appears in the festive scenes represented on Etruscan tombs as worn by
females (Dennis,
Etruria, i. pp. 307, 368,
371).
The word
ἄμπυχ, was also applied to the
frontal of a horse's bridle, Lat.
frontale, or more
usually plur.
frontalia (
Plin. Nat. 37.194;
Liv. 37.40). In this sense the form
ἀμπυκτὴρ also occurs (Aesch.
Theb, 461). The
frontalia might likewise be adorned with
precious stones (Plin.
l.c.), and were worn also by
elephants (Liv.
l.c.). In
Aesch. Supp. 431, there is a play on the two senses; a woman
torn from sanctuary (
βρετέων) is compared
to a horse dragged by its bridle (
ἱππηδὸν
ἀμπύκων).
Hesychius (s. v.
Λυδίῳ νόμῳ) supposes
the men to have worn frontlets in Lydia; they were also worn by the Jews
(Dent. 6.8, 11.18).
 |
|
Ampyx or head-band.
|
The above woodcut exhibits the frontal on the head of Pegasus, taken from one
of Sir William Hamilton's vases, in contrast with the corresponding ornament
as shown on the heads of two females in the same collection.
[
J.Y] [
J.H.O]
